Workshop: Broadband Accessibility for People with Disabilities II: Barriers, Opportunities and Policy Recommendations

October 20, 2009, 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM EDT

Washington, DC

Barriers, Opportunities, and Policy Recommendations will continue the open discussion among the FCC and all who have a stake in the future of broadband and its accessibility for people with disabilities, including the disability community, network and service providers, equipment manufacturers, and software producers, technologists, economists, academics, representatives from trade associations and non-profits, and representatives from tribal, local, state, and federal governments.

The goal of this follow-up workshop is to clearly identify (i) accessibility and affordability barriers faced by people with disabilities in accessing broadband capabilities; (ii) opportunities that broadband can present for people with disabilities; and (iii) policy recommendations that will address the barriers to broadband for people with disabilities and maximize the opportunities related to broadband for people with disabilities.

In conjunction with the panels, there will be exhibits of assistive technologies that are used by people with disabilities to access broadband technologies as well as universally designed mass market broadband technologies that can be used by people with disabilities.

Simultaneous with the webcast, the meeting will be available through Accessible Event, a service that works with your web browser to make presentations accessible to people with disabilities. You can listen to the audio and use a screen reader to read displayed documents. You can also watch the video with open captioning. Accessible Event is available at http://accessibleevent.com/.

The web page prompts for an Event Code which is, 005202376.

To learn about the features of Accessible Event, consult its User's Guide at, http://accessibleevent.com/doc/user_guide/.

Webcast

Topics

The following are some of the preliminary topics that will be covered at this workshop. If you would like to discuss any other topics, please send us your suggestions[2].

What are the specific barriers to broadband accessibility and affordability for (i) people with sight disabilities; (ii) people with hearing disabilities; (iii) people with speech disabilities; (iv) people who are deaf blind; (v) people with mobility disabilities; and (vi) people with intellectual disabilities and social communication disabilities, including autism?

What are the technological barriers, solutions, and costs as they relate to broadband networks, services, equipment, software and tech support that affect people with disabilities?

What is the potential for broadband to further education, job creation/entrepreneurial activities, health care, civic participation, emergency preparedness and response, telework, social networking, and other national purposes for people with disabilities?

What programs and services currently exist that provide or subsidize broadband equipment and broadband internet access for people with disabilities, and what lessons have been learned from these programs?

What specific policy recommendations related to disability access should be included in the National Broadband Plan?